"Kill the spare,"
The voiced hissed into Harry's very soul. His head was woozy. His stomach was doing a belly dance all by itself. But he had been in worse shape before and he was now in his prime for the Triwizard's Competition. So when Naruto's yelp of surprise and a crash happened somewhere to his right, Harry dove blindly for his left. He crashed under some brushes (good), more yelps from Naruto (very good), glimpse of green light (very, very bad), the hard point of his wand poking his dancing stomach (excellent). Feeling better armed, Harry immediately focused on the situation at hand.
Through skewed glasses, Harry peered at the originator of the flashing lights ignoring the noisy chaos (identified as Naruto). At first, he thought a fat short man, Peter Pettigrew, was the person cursing Naruto, but then he noticed the man held his arms too close to the body for effective spell duelling. It was not extended as it should be for maximum mobility of wand movement.
When in doubt, be suspicious.
Iruka-sensei's training had covered more than just chakra training, he had taught them how to think under stressful situations. Naturally, Naruto was the star of that lesson. He fought even better with all of them team up against him, Iruka-sensei included. A little rite of passage all of the OM students went through to become part of the 'real' Oriental Magic training. He had been proud to be first one tested, not so happy when Iruka-sensei denounced him the first failure and shunted him back to basic tactics training. He was more than annoyed when, Draco Malfoy of all people, became first student to past that ridiculous test. Of course, the Slytherin was a sneaky little pest, which was why Iruka-sensei passed him even though most of his tricks failed, well, some of them. Okay, so all of them worked and Harry was being a sour grape because he was caught in one of them at a crucial moment. Hermione was the next one to pass once she got over her inhibition to 'hurt' or 'cheat'.
Back to the matter at hand, Harry fought down the urge to charge in yelling murder. That habit had been beaten out of him almost literally. Corporal punishment had been outlawed at Hogwarts for over a hundred years. Something that Iruka-sensei obviously did not get the memo plane for. Think rational, thing sneaky, think Draco Malfoy who had passed with the highest marks at Sneakiness Training. One that even Naruto failed at once (Draco, the Sneaky little Git had lured him out with a ramen scented rubber ball). The git had never let anyone forget it. Anyway, Pettigrew looked like he was carrying something, and whatever it was that thing was now cursing Naruto verbally and literally.
A flashback of Iruka-sensei's evil rabid squirrels suddenly ran across his mind, wincing, Harry clenched his teeth against a full body shudder from the memory. Just the thought of those overly intelligent rats made Harry even more cautious. The thought of spell casting squirrels actually made him wished he hadn't bothered to get up that morning. With his luck, Pettigrew was probably carrying a deformed version of the Dark Lord.
"Where is that Potter boy? Wormtail!" the bundle screeched.
Harry blanched, oh surely not…
"Na na na na na na!" Sang Naruto's kage bunshin, at least Harry thought it was a kage bunshin, surely the blonde was not so stupid or crazy as to use his real self to dance in front of what could only be a deformed sized Voldermort, right? Right?
"Nee hee hee hee!" Naruto stuck his tongue out, waving his bum in a taunting manner at Wormtail.
Never mind, Harry need to find a way to get out of here, he needed to-
Masssster, the boy isss here…
Harry stiffened, a snake! Carefully, he scanned his surroundings, a dry scrape of something against the rocks made him glance to the left. To find a really big snake reared back, mouth opened, in preparation to strike.
Uh oh
With impeccable timing, Harry darted out of the way of the strike. Only to end up in the open. Blast. Iruka-sensei would have zapped his bum for that stupid move. Sure enough, Wormtail whirled at his direction, the deformed bundle of joy in his arms sneered at Harry, "Nagini, attack the Potter Boy," it hissed.
Harry scrambled out of the way of the snake, presumably Nagini, and was gratified to see a short knife whizz passed him. It bounced off the snake harmlessly. Harry looked up to see a mortified and white faced Naruto.
"Wah ha ha ha! Fear my wrath, little foreign wizard!" the swaddled Dark Lordling snickered.
"Er?" Naruto looked, of all things, embarrassed. Not an expression that Harry associated with death and danger.
"What?"
At Harry's incredulous look, the blonde hurried to explain, "Rule 2301," when Harry still looked puzzled he flipped a rather thick book and showed the appropriate page to Harry.
Rule 2301 - USE OF THROWING KNIVES IN BATTLE WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE DISQUALIFICATION.
Harry resisted the urge to smack himself in the head. He really did. Nevertheless, it would perhaps be in their best interest if he were to explain their current position to the little blonde. He also took the time to curse the rule makers of this stupid competition.
"Naruto, we are no longer in the competition now. We are in danger. We are to use any and all kinds of powers and tricks to get away." He revised his message in his head, there, short and to the point.
Nagini struck again. Harry was saved from being bitten courtesy of a rock, a rock thrown by Naruto to be precise. Nagini chomped on the rock like a piece of cheese.
"Avada kedavra!"
The green light was really scary, really. But it was damned funny to see Naruto throw another rock in the path of the curse, causing the massive amount of debris, but no other damages. Wow, why had no one thought to use solid matter to stop curses anyway? Hermione would have kittens when she hears about this. She and Draco had developed a strange kind of rivalry between themselves. Her near perfect recall memory and research skill versus Malfoy hired tutors and fortune, backed by years of traditional knowledge. All Ravenclaws had wept and cursed at their existence. Anyway, back to the curse...
When Iruka-sensei first heard about this 'unstoppable curse' he had been curious about it.
000
"The Avada kedavra?" The sensei raised a dark eyebrow, "What does it do?"
"It's really terrible," someone said in a harsh whisper, "So terrible that no one speaks of it,"
"Uh huh," the sensei remained sceptical while Naruto's blue eyes grew bigger and bigger as the hushed whispers grew along with it.
"Professor Moody showed it to us," said Hannah Abbot, who had remained with them in that first ten weeks of 'lessons' (or training as Iruka-sensei called it).
"Well, I think it's very irresponsible for a professor to demonstrate such a terrible spell in front of impressionable students," Hermione harrumphed.
Harry hadn't thought so. He'd believed that it was important for him to know the spell that had killed his parents and to know the spell means.
"How did the professor demonstrate this… spell?" Iruka-sensei wanted to know.
"He killed a s-spider with it," Ron volunteer.
At this, the Oriental Magic professor gave them a bland look. So bland it was positively tasteless, kind of like that divination professor's fashion sense. "A spider," he stated, blandly.
Ron nodded frantically. There was a contemplative on the sensei's face, one that Harry would looked back to when Ron finally quitted the OM study group after a 'genjutsu resistance' training. The poor boy had developed a permanent twitch whenever Iruka-sensei is within hearing or seeing range.
Nevertheless, the OM professor remained unimpressed by the wizarding world's most feared spell.
"But, what does it do?" he said, half exasperated, scratching his pony tail.
All eyes were on him, half horrified, half disdainful.
Finally, Hermione answered, "It k-kills people,"
"Right," the sensei waited for her to continue, even Naruto had his huge eyes on her. Both waiting, expectant.
"Sensei, it kills people," Ron reiterated, just in case the professor didn't get it the first time.
"I heard you, so? Lots of things kill people,"
"It, well, it's unstoppable," Hermione tried.
"Go on," he urged a little impatiently.
The wizards and witches exchange helpless glances. How else to describe this terrible, unstoppable spell?
"It breaks through any magical barrier, goes through any kind of defensive spell," Draco Malfoy, "It's considered one of the three Unforgivables,"
"Death Eaters and the Dark Lord use it," was Harry's helpful contribution.
Instead of looking impressed, Iruka-sensei merely looked bored. "So it kills people, is that it?"
There was an instant chorus of protest and horror.
"What! How could you-"
"It's the most horrible-"
"Only the most evil people would-"
"It's a Dark Spell, the darkest-"
Iruka-sensei was not impressed by their outburst. He picked his ear casually while the children ranted. Even Naruto looked bored, he was now devoting his attention to tracking a small snail that changes colour according to its surroundings. Once the voices died down a little, Iruka showed them a small tooth pick he plucked from his hair.
"See this? Can anyone tell me what this is?"
Hermione's hand shot up, "It's a toothpick, sir,"
"Mm, good, now let me tell you something, I can kill a fully grown man in five different ways with this toothpick," he let them eye the flimsy little wood, scepticism clear in their eyes. There was a little fear too, from those who had been fully converted to believe whatever nonsense spewed from Iruka's mouth. There were a growing number of those, a typical product of the sheep mentality inbred to those with magic.
Draco Malfoy was the first to demonstrate his bravado, "So? Are you going to show us, professor?" He was still in the disrespectful rebellious phase at that time.
Casually, Iruka stuck the toothpick into his mouth. He rolled the toothpick about for a few seconds, eyes contemplating the sky. Looking for all the world like a casual loafer without a care in world. Then he suddenly turned and spat the toothpick out.
There was a squeal of some hapless animal. A small rabbit was struck, some fifty meters away where they had felt safe enough to venture and investigate human activity. The toothpick was lodged into its left eye, striking right into its brain. The poor animal twitched and squirmed, bleeding and squealing.
The girls gave a horrified shriek, some went white with fear. The silence was palpable but for the screams of a dying animal.
"Snap its neck, Naruto-kun," Iruka's voice was casual, "Put it out of misery." He smiled brightly at his white faced students, "Shall we commence with today's lesson?"
More than half dropped out that day.
000
Harry had been surprised when Hermione continued to cling stubbornly to the OM classes after that, working even harder than before. Harry wasn't sure, but the very next day, Iruka-sensei promptly set the two of his smartest students to unravel the Killing Curse. Claiming that there was no such thing as a perfect defence, or indeed a perfectly unstoppable weapon, they were to seek out the weaknesses of the Killing Curse and if possible, find its counter curse.
Harry was amused to think that Naruto may have just found it in the shape of fist size rocks.
Harry's musings were disrupted by a particularly strong Blasting Curse on the tombstone they were hiding behind. The stone artefact shattered, sending dangerous shrapnel everywhere. Harry did a tuck and roll move copied off Draco Malfoy, the git was the best in dodging too, second only to the incredible Naruto. There was a dull clang, followed by a very loud scream. Out of morbid curiosity, Harry stuck half his head out of the thorny bush he had been hiding behind and saw a really big cauldron wobbling dangerously on its perch.
"Wormtail! Call my Death Eaters! Destroy this- this Orange Menace! Kill him! Spill his blood! Destroy it!" the Dark Lord howled.
"Y-yesh, m-mashter," the poor man stuttered.
This was alarming news. Naruto understood enough to share a worried glance with Harry. More enemies? Well, Naruto could even out the score easily with his shadow clones, all Harry had to do was to convince him to deploy them despite his sudden (not to mention undesireable) urge to obey the rules. The Slytherins must have done a great deal of conditioning with Naruto to help him keep track of all the extra 'Rules' written especially for Naruto in this Third Task. If Harry hadn't thought the Wizarding government foolish already, this would have cinched it.
Several cracks of Apparation quickly filled the air. Hooded figures in bone masks apparated in, eliciting a girlish scream from Naruto.
"Eeek! Anbu!"
Now, Harry did not know what an Anbu was, but he did knew when opportunity knocks at his door.
"Oh! Er, we're in trouble now, um, let's get out of here, Naruto!" Harry recited awkwardly, "before we're, um, captured, yeah,"
"Harry! Bad danger!" Naruto exclaimed anxiously, "I break rule, Iruka-sensei be so mad," that last part was muttered under his breath.
Harry couldn't care less, he was never happier when Naruto jammed his fingers into that all too familiar hand sign and called in a legion of orangeness. The tide of battle soon turned to their favour. Various Narutos pulled faces, danced cheekily in front of wildly careering spells and clung onto the legs of the Death Eaters. In all the chaos present, Harry noted that one Death Eater had placed himself into a strategically out of the way area and only zapped a Naruto when one came too close.
"Get the Potter Boy!" the dark lordling screeched, "leave the Menace!"
Oops, of course, in this sea of fakes, Harry was the only one person. As one the terribly angry Death Eaters turned on him. Harry gulped and readied his wand, this was... relatively scary. He could only hope that Naruto would...
"Kage bunshin no jutsu! Henge!"
...come through. Oh, wow, it was awfully strange to see so many of himself. What's even more terrible was seeing some of 'himself' pulled faces, slapped their own arses and doing all kinds of general mayhem to irritate the Death Eaters. One Harry had squished up his face with his hands until his mouth resembles an octopus' beak and was blowing a raspberry at Voldermote baby. Resisting the urge to snort with hysterical laughter, Harry tried to focus on getting out when something went crashing somewhere to his left. Risking a look, Harry was both fascinated and a little horrified to see that someone had accidentally tipped the giant cauldron over.
A reflexive cringed, brought on by years of being with Professor Snape in potions, made him duck his head. Just in time too as a brightly clad Naruto went sailing pass his head and smashed against a stone wall. There was a series of poofs as all the Kage Bunshin blew up at their original's head damage. Damn! Time to leave. Shuffling under the cover of the conveniently widespread white smoke, Harry tried to peer for a way out, his pounding heart and sweaty hands not helping the situation at all.
The smoke soon dissipated enough that he could see the area where the cauldron had been accidentally upended. The spillage was bright green and was currently melting Pettigrew from leg up. It was like watching one of those B grade horror movies Dudley had been addicted to at one time. The ratty little man was turning to a pool of red sludge, still gripping a screaming baby Voldemort in his arms. Two enemies accounted for, Harry scanned the area warily for the others. It was then he saw Nagini turning into a pool of purple sludge from the outermost bit of the green potion.
Next to her head was the Goblet.
The Goblet, the stupid cursed thing that had to be a portkey, perfect. Naruto groaned from somewhere behind him. Harry reacted with lightning quick reflexes. A well timed skip brought him close enough to grab the blonde's foot. A sharp whipping motion brought his wand to play.
"Accio Cup!"
As they disappeared, it occurred to Harry that was the first chance he had had to use his wand at all during the fight.
####
Dun dun dun!
Sorry for the late update, I was knee deep in little kids and that really saps one's energy. Also, I've been jumped on by all kinds of plot bunnies thus have several stories in the cooker to deal with. Hope you like the world as seen by Harry Potter!
Love
KT
PS: Kill the spare!
Whoo I just managed to begin and end the story just like JK Rowling! ^^